Living in Oz, giving birth in HK

[stagsrubes]

Hi,

Thank you so much for Geobaby and for everyone's contribution, I have learned soooooo much!!!

We planned to start a family next year and I would love to have the baby in Hong Kong... (I am originially from HK, married a gorgeous aussie but living in Canberra).

I got these questions I need to clarify before planning!!!

Do you have to be PHYSICALLY in Hong Kong to register for child birth? I planned to spend the majority of my pregnancy in Oz (say, 32 weeks) due to hubby's and my work committments. Have you heard of any hospital accepting online registration? Would 32nd week be too late to register in a hospital?

And I suppose I could just get to an OB once I arrived in HK to do the final antenatal appointments? Is there any special pregnancy-related blood test that have to done specifically in HK? I read it in the Adventist HK (not Tsuen Wan) Obstetric Package that patient has to pay HK$40k extra if mandatory antenatal lab test is not done!!!???

Thank you in advance for all the advices... I would love to hear from mums that moved to HK late in their pregnancies!!!

:cheers:
Rubes

 

[thundacatchergo]

Why do you want to give birth in Hong Kong?

 

[0ze_Kid]

Why do you want to give birth in Hong Kong?

Probably because, as a HK mother it gives her child dual citizenship (after ticking other boxes).

Here is my lay understanding. If you are an perm resident then you should be able to book into a hospital and not pay the 'foreigners' fees which are REALLY high - then again they could just be for mothers from mainland... I would drop someone like Matilda an email or call and they will be able to help straight away.

I went over half way through my pregnancy so had an OB in Australia and in HK. I just kept all the records with me so that if anything happened all of them were on file. I also had a hospital in each location (again, just in case). My Australian OB was good and faxed me records and copies - it was painless.

I went back to Oz at 37 weeks (to give birth) and that was the most annoying thing as you are not allowed to fly past 36 weeks and everyone kept saying it would be hard and I would not be allowed on the plane (didn't happen, I filled in Qantas medical forms and had those signed before I left Australia and had my HK OB prepare a letter. Noone asked for any of it.). My advice - get an isle seat 'cause I didn't have one and got really annoyed at having to pee every hour!

Good luck with all.

 

[stagsrubes]

Hi 0ze_Kid and thundacatchergo,

Thanks so much for your replies!

Thundacatchergo, I want to give birth in HK because:
1. I will have access to more TCM ingredients than I would in Oz for postnatal care (I don't know whether I fully believe in all those soups & stuff... but just in case!)

2. I would feel more comfortable with mum & dad close by. But may be also because I want to mark HK on the baby somehow? I love the city (it's where I grew up) but the bud is going to grow up in Oz!

0ze_Kid, glad to know you didn't find the flying too hard... that's one thing I am worry about. I planned to fly at the latest at 32 weeks anyway.

I emailed Matilda (they are cool with an overseas OB for referral) and I am now waiting to see what QMH can offer.

As for registering online, do you know anyone that have done this? Would they let me register at a public hospital like QMH without being in HK (I could of course email them proof of pregnancy, ID card and stuff like that)?

Thanks again,
Rubes

 

[starbucks2]

Hi Rubes

I have not dealt with QMH but would suggest giving them a call to see if you can register online/over the phone with fax copies. Having had a few friends deliver there and have their antenatal checks there, I understand that they are very strict on appointments etc. From what I have heard, they are not very flexible about even changing appointment times from those which they allocate to you. My gut feeling is that they will only register you in person but happy to be proven wrong.

If you go private then you need to make a booking with the hospital as soon as you know you are pregnant - ie: 6 weeks along. Even then some people (including me) are only added to a waitlist! With Matilda and Adventist (and possibly other private hospitals) you need to pay a non-refundable deposit within a set time of receiving a confirmation (within a month for Matilda).

I travelled at 34 weeks in my first pregnancy and was fine on the plane but agree with the above about an aisle seat!

SB2

 

[nicolejoy]

You could always register at QMH at 32 weeks with your HKID card. You can even show up in labour and they have to admit you even if you haven't registered there since they're a public hospital. Ideally, they like you to do all their antenatal everything etc... but there are MANY people who get transferred there because of preterm labour or whatever and they never registered. I think registration is only really a big deal at the private hospitals.

 

[stagsrubes]

Hi SB2 and nicolejoy,

Thanks for the advices... good to know you can rock up at 32 weeks & register at QMH... that solves the logistics! I am considering Matilda, but gee the costs can really buy a lot of funky toys for the bub!

Does anyone know why HK have this 3-day normal delivery hospital stay for mum & bub? I read it somewhere in this forum that if you are insistence enough, you could get out within 24 hrs (health permitted)... is it true? I would love to hear from anyone that successfully escaped from the hospital within 24 hrs of giving birth!

Another question (as public patient in public hospital): can you ask to have the bub put on your tummy right after the delivery? And also, can you ask to be left alone with bub & dad for an hour of bonding before getting on with all the bathing/caring stuff? Research now shows that the 1st hr bonding is very important...
I assume that if you go private, you can ask for all of the above?!

Thanks again, again and again,
Rubes

 

[nicolejoy]

My baby was born at QMH and she was put on my tummy RIGHT after delivery - even before the placenta was delivered. But I have a friend who had her baby there a couple of weeks earlier and she wanted that, but they said no to her. It's really dependent on who the person in charge is at the time, I think... Although both me and that friend were able to breastfeed in the delivery room within 30 min or so of the birth. It was really nice to have that time. In our case, our baby had to go to the special care ward for monitoring right after - so I'm really grateful for that quality time right when she was born!!

For my next, I definitely want an early discharge! For my first, I wanted it as well - but I think because she had to be in special care for a day, they were less flexible... maybe I should have pushed for it more, I don't know. Nothing I can do to change it now anyway

 

[stagsrubes]

Well, that's the thing... mum is telling me that when it's your first, the midwives tend to be a bit more 'strict' (5-day stay for 1st born, 3-day for 2nd baby back in the 70s)... But hey, if bub needs to be in a special care - that's more important than mum going home early!

Glad to know you get BF time within 30mins... I think I can live without the baby being put on my tummy... but not without the 'bonding' time.

OK... now I only have to convince hubby that he will be more important to me in these first few days to bring me yummy street food than to bond with the bub before my HK childbirth plan can come true!!! He prefers the childbirth here in Oz as you pretty much get to take bub home right away, but I want the baby to have some HK 'legacy' and this will also mean no birth certificate that state 'born in Canberra'!!! LOL...

 

[nicolejoy]

You'll probably also need to be in Hong Kong for long enough afterward to get a passport back to Australia. That would be quickest probably if you get a HKSAR passport - but I don't know how long that would take... some places issue temporary passports as well... when my daughter was born, it took about 6 weeks to get her Australian passport, and we were trying to get everything done really quickly...